Immediate management

Cool the patient down ^a

Why?

• Patients who have local or systemic cooling to a target temperature of at most 34-35 C for at least 12 hours are less likely to die and have severe disability ^a

Hypothermia reduces death or severe disability

Patient	Treatment	Comparison	Outcome	CER	OR (95% CI)	NNT (95% CI)
moderate or severe closed head injury a	mild hypothermia	normothermia	death or severe disability at	62%	0.40 (0.22 to 0.75)	4 (3 to 14)